Mr. Wang Lanqiang, 36, from the Pengsi Village, Jiangdian Township, Liaocheng City, Shandong Province was persecuted and sentenced to three years of forced labour because of his belief in Falun Gong. He was also forced into homelessness for nearly four years.

In 2001, Mr. Wang was arrested by Yin Qingyuan, chief of the Yangtun Township Police Station, when he went to Yangtun Township, Gaotang County, to distribute Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution. Yin took away Mr. Wang's motorcycle and 90 yuan1 that he had saved to buy medicine for his father. That night, he was interrogated by Yin and Dong Yuqiang, an officer from the Politics and Security Section of the Gaotang County Police Department. Police officers beat Mr. Wang to extract a confession from him. Later, he was detained in the Gaotang County Detention Centre for seven months. In the detention centre, Mr. Wang was forced to work long hours without any payment and very little food. Guard Yin, the younger brother of Yin Qingyuan, also instigated other detainees to beat Mr. Wang.

Mr. Wang had been sentenced to forced labour in 2002. He was held in Division No. 9 (later renamed No. 7) of the Second Forced Labour Camp of Shandong Province from July 2002 to November 2004. At the labour camp, he was subjected to daily brainwashing sessions, where he was forced to watch video programmes that slandered Falun Gong and to sit straight on a small bench for long periods of time. Several months later, he was forced to do heavy labour with very little sleep. He first worked in the blanket workshop and later in the cement workshop. The working conditions there were very poor. The air was suffocating, as it was filled with blanket fibres and cement dust, and Mr. Wang was given no protection.

After his release in November 2004, Mr. Wang was harassed by local 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) official Zhao Feng, who tried to force him several times to give up practising Falun Gong.

In late 2006, Li Shuguo, chief of the Jiangdian Township Police Station, searched Mr. Wang's home without showing any legal documents. Li confiscated Mr. Wang's Falun Gong books and forced him to sign a paper, which he claimed was a search warrant. To avoid further harassment, Mr. Wang left his home and became homeless.

Not long after the Chinese New Year of 2007, Mr. Wang went home for the funeral of his grandmother. When officers from the Jiangdian Township Police Station learned that he had returned home, they searched his home again and planned to arrest him. With the help of some villagers, Mr. Wang escaped the arrest, but had to become homeless again.

Before the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, Li Shuguo went to the home of Mr. Wang's parents and tried to coerce them, under the excuse of maintaining social order for the coming Olympic Games, to reveal Mr. Wang's whereabouts. His parents were very frightened by the harassment, however, and were unable to utter a word. One month before the Olympic Games, local officials, including Zhao Feng and Peng Jinshan, went to the home of Mr. Wang's elder brother and forced him to tell them where Mr. Wang was. They intimidated the brother and forced him to serve them food and drinks. Before they left, they also confiscated his ID card, which subsequently left him with big problems in finding a job and renting a place to live.

Before October 1st, 2009, Peng Jinshan and Lv, the new chief of the Jiangdian Township Police Station, went to the home of Mr. Wang's brother again and stayed there for one day with the excuse of maintaining social order for the coming National Sports Games in Jinan City, Shandong Province, and the National Day on October 1st.

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.